Tropical Night

A Dominique rooster with grey-and-white barred plumage and a red comb, in a terracotta short-sleeved shirt, perched on a blue-and-white tiled bench at night, a tall glass of iced lemon water beside him, orange trees, whitewashed houses with wrought-iron balconies and a stone fountain in a lamplit Andalusian square under a deep blue sky

Twenty-Six Degrees at Midnight

It is past midnight and still too warm to sleep, so the whole town has come down to the square again. The bench under the orange trees is his, and so is the lemon water, with ice. The waiter says it will be cooler tomorrow; he has been saying so since June.

9 September 2026